Food For Thought - Garlic/Ginger Green Beans

Garlic/Ginger Green Beans

This is a really popular recipe around my house. When I make it, Pat and I can’t get enough of it; and when I serve it to friends, they snatch it right up. And it’s EASY!!

The thing you need to know about my cooking is that I like spicy, so I use a lot of crushed red pepper. You will need to season things to YOUR tastes; and if you are cooking for other people, find out how spicy they like it – then take it from there. Also, on the subject of spice – I don’t actually have a lot of time to cook; and I actually don’t derive a lot of pleasure from cooking. I love feeding people – I love serving them, I love the camaraderie of having my loved ones around me and of feeding them; I, especially, love feeding them good healthy food that causes them to make yummy noises. It just proves my point that you don’t have to suffer while dieting and you don’t have to eat garbage to have a good time. So, because of my general distaste for cooking and my lack of time, I try to make things as easy on myself as possible. In this specific instance (the topic of spice), it should be said that USUALLY I use powdered onion and powdered garlic (which I buy from this great International Grocer on 9th Avenue, where all the spices are kept in big barrels and I can go in and buy a pound of whatever I need and take it home and store it in my own jars). I don’t have the time or interest in doing a lot of peeling and chopping.

THIS recipe is one of the few recipes that I will do that for – because the result of the peeling and chopping is so delish!

Here’s what you will need:

Fresh green beans (this won’t work with frozen, BELIEVE Me)
Fresh garlic
Fresh ginger
A DRIZZLE of Olive Oil
Crushed red pepper
Almond slices – as many or as few as you want but DON’T go overboard. The recipe is green beans with almonds, not vice versa.

Once you are home with your fresh green beans, wash them (I use a nice organic vegetable wash from the health food store) – get those pesticides off (unless you can afford organic, in which case you are just washing off dirt – and who is afraid of a little dirt? Extra taste). Some people snap the ends of their beans off. Who has time for that? I cut ‘em off with scissors. Once the green beans are all cleaned up and cut up, steam them. (If you don’t have a good bamboo steamer, get one – or you can use your stove top steamer basket and sauce pot; whatever works for you). Steam them so they are still crunchy, ok? Steamed but crunchy. Not mushy. Icky. Poopie. Nasty. Mushy green beans. Nasty. It’s just a couple of minutes in your steamer, until the colour of the green beans is so vibrant you think you’ve taken some kind of mood enhancing drug (not that I ever have). Set the steamed green beans aside.

Peel your fresh ginger and fresh garlic (use as much or as little as you like – this is YOUR meal; make it your way. Be greedy. I use lots of these two ingredients). Once they are peeled, dice them into as big or as small pieces as you want. Set them aside, with your steamed (but crunchy not icky poopie nasty mushy) fresh green beans (not frozen, blech).

In a nice size skillet (I always get non stick and NO my Emeril skillet did not stay non stick forever, the way they promise, I had to replace it, which pissed me off like you can’t believe), on a medium flame (NOTHING needs to be cooked on high flame – I have learned the hard way), heat up a drizzle of Olive Oil (not a lot – you don’t need a lot, even though Olive Oil is actually good for you because you need some healthy fat in your diet, otherwise you look like I did when I was dancing on the gay pride float and everyone thought I was sick with cancer, I was so underweight). When the Olive Oil is hot, toss in your ginger and garlic and stir it up from time to time (don’t toss it in and walk away – I’ve learned the hard way how quickly things burn). Then, toss in some of your crushed red pepper and mix it up. Then, toss in your almond slices (slivers don’t work for me, texturally – it’s much nicer with sliced almonds, trust me, I wouldn’t lie to you) and let them get browned up a little.

Now, with your ginger, garlic and almonds cooked up and seasoned, you can toss in your green beans. With a pair of tongs, just toss them about until they are coated with a light dusting of olive oil , ginger, garlic, pepper, just a light tossing. You don’t want them soggy from the liquid or burnt. Just a light coating, ok? A minute. Maybe 90 seconds.

Out of the frying pan, onto the serving platter and then sit back and watch your guests go to happy town.

Just don’t let them eat it all; save some for yourelf.